Here’s a look back at the news we covered this week:

Advocacy groups have wasted no time taking advantage of this week’s loosening of visitor restrictions on Parliament Hill, with a series of in-person receptions planned. As of April 25, the public gallery in the House of Commons chamber has reopened to visitors, while public access to committee rooms also resumed. “It's a small community in Ottawa, everybody knows each other in the political bubble, and so it's just nice to finally be able to get out of our home offices and be able to meet each other and celebrate the good work that we all do,” said Kyle Larkin, vice-president at Impact Public Affairs.

Associations representing Canada’s dental professionals say one of their top questions regarding the upcoming public dental care program is which level of government will be administering the venture. The federal Liberals’ dental care program is one of the key initiatives listed in a confidence and supply agreement with the NDP that was announced on March 22. This year’s budget, read on April 7, set aside $5.3 billion for the first five years starting this fiscal year, and $1.7 billion ongoing. “Is the federal government going to be administering the plan? Or is there going to be some kind of transfer of the program and more funds to provinces to either supplement existing [provincially-funded] programs or to run parallel to them?” said Dr. Keith Da Silva, president of the Canadian Association of Public Health Dentistry. (This story was also published in Hill Times Research, a sister publication to The Lobby Monitor which exclusively covers federal health policy.)

Former Ontario minister Monique Smith has moved to a new role at Global Public Affairs as chair of the firm’s cultural industries practice. Smith, who joined Global in February 2020 as a senior counsel specializing in Canada-U.S. relations, said the new position is a return to familiar territory. “I was the Association of Canadian Publishers’s executive director for a number of years before I entered into public life,” she said. “I feel like in some ways, I've kind of gone full circle. I'm a member of a number of cultural groups, and I've been going to [the Toronto International Film Festival] since I was 18 years old.”

Cooperation Canada posted 30 of the 245 communication reports submitted to the federal lobbyists’ registry last week. The association of civil society and international development organizations is represented on the registry by CEO Kate Higgins, and communicated with Treasury Board President Mona Fortier; Marie-France Lalonde, parliamentary secretary to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser; Terry Duguid, parliamentary secretary to Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault; and Conservative international development critic Garnett Genuis between Feb. 7 and Feb. 11.

In new registrations, Fair Tax Treatment for Digital Asset Mining Coalition started its first file on the registry on April 14, and is represented by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP consultants Daniel Brock, Claudia Feldkamp, Dana Gregoire, Andrew House, and Taylor West, as well as EY Law LLP consultants David Douglas Robertson and Selena Ing. The Toronto-based coalition, according to its registry file, consists of 12 companies. The coalition is interested in discussing Finance Canada’s draft legislative proposals published on Feb. 4, which would amend the Excise Tax Act to include provisions about crypto mining activities. In addition to Finance, the Fasken and EY consultants plan to communicate with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Innovation, and the Canada Revenue Agency, as well as with MPs and senators.

Also new to the registry is the National Medical Imaging Clinic, Education and Research Centre, a Saskatoon, Sask.-based imaging clinic created in partnership with James Smith Cree Nation and DR Links Holdings Inc. The centre has hired independent consultant Jean-René Gagnon, who joined the registry on April 15, to represent it in discussions with Health, Finance, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Employment. According to its French-language file, the centre is interested in seeking federal funding to provide medical imaging training to young people, including Indigenous peoples.

Boosting its representation on the registry is the Business Council of Alberta (BCA), which added StrategyCorp Inc consultants Elan Harper, Frédérik Larouche, Lisa Samson, and Danya Vered to the file on April 22. They join BCA president Adam Legge, who has represented the council since Dec. 1, 2019. The consultants plan to meet with officials to discuss the council’s “Define the Decade” project. Those meetings will include officials from 12 government institutions, including the PMO, Finance, Agriculture, Environment, Innovation, and Natural Resources, as well as with MPs.

New registry files

Based on a search of the federal lobbyists' registry on April 29 at 9:13 a.m. ET

New registrations

Reactivations